Miracle Cure - I'm Healed!

I have been cooking for 50+ years.  I have been crying for 50+ years - every time I cut onions.  I love onions and use them alot, but I must be allergic to them because it's almost instantaneous when I make the first cut - WHAM- the tears start, and the stinging starts, and then the nose running starts - it's not fun.    The cooking comes to a standstill during recovery.  My mother used to make use of this technique when I was a child, to run me (and my mouth) out from under her feet.

I've tried lots of solutions, but none have worked, so I just endured the process.  Until now. 

Last week I watched a cooking show (before I cancelled my cable and gave up my beloved Food Network!) and the chef said she always threw the unpeeled onion into the freezer for a few minutes while she prepped other foods. 

I'm telling you, it's a miracle.  I tried it today, skeptical as always, and amazingly - not a hint of tears.  It was a joy to cut up an onion and not have to take a 10 minute break until my eyesight returned.  

Scientifically, it makes perfect sense.  The cutting breaks the onion cells, the cells release chemicals, the chemicals mix to make a sulfur-kind of gas, the gas hits the natural water in your eyes, makes sulfuric acid, and hence the stinging.  Tears are produced to wash the acid away.  I'm assuming the freezing reduces the release of the chemicals.

Live and learn.  Now I just have to remember I put an onion in the freezer.  :)